Buggrit

[ksmith]

Home today and tomorrow, my first two vacation days of 2010. I had been planning to take Friday off in any case, but then the Winter Storm Warning went into effect and I thought a 4-day weekend might be a plan. There are only a couple inches on the ground so far, but it's supposed to fall throughout the day and overnight. By the time the storm pushes through sometime tomorrow, we could be left with 11-14" of snow. At least it's the fine stuff. Much easier to shovel...except for the fact that the temps are then supposed to plummet and the wind pick up. No fun shoveling snow when it's windy. I'll need to break out the ski pants and the special gloves that are too damned insulated to be used for anything but holding a shovel.

In non-weather news, I am now the proud owner of a new set of pots and pans.

Last weekend, I had decided to start building the Must-Have set compiled by Cooks Illustrated. You may need an account to read the page, so I will say that they recommend 7 core pieces--an All-Clad 12" skillet along with their 2 and 4-qt saucepans, a Wearever 10" non-stick saute pan, a Lodge 12" cast iron skillet, a Le Creuset 7.25 qt Dutch oven, and a Cuisinart 12-qt stockpot. The total cost for this a la carte set, excluding DEALS!!, is close to $900. Not including shipping.

I figured I had time, and could build a piece here, a piece there. I already had the Dutch oven, and decided to pick up the All-Clad skillet and 4-qt sauce pan. Went to the All-Clad irregulars site and made my choices. Stared at the total cost, almost $250. Decided to hold off a bit and look around.

CI also rated cookware sets. Their main complaint about these sets is that you often wind up with a couple of pieces that you never use, so they hunted around for the optimal sets. Their top-rated set was, wait for it, an All-Clad 10-pc that came in at $700. Another top choice was a Calphalon 8-pc set for less than half that price. I have a couple of Calphalon non-stick skillets, and like them well enough, so I hunted around. Found a nice 13-pc set on eBay for $300. Almost pulled the trigger, but balked at the glass lids. Poked around looking for reviews. Amazon had the same set for $100 more. Reviews were OK. Then I noticed the link to a Cuisinart 12-pc set and clicked through.

OK, suspense over--these were the pans I bought. The reviews were overwhelmingly positive, both from Amazon and other stores I checked. They're multi-clad, with an aluminum core. The 3-qt sauce pan came with a steamer insert, which I will be using muchly ever since I learned from Alton Brown that microwaving zaps antioxidants in veggies. The lids are metal. I now have pans I can stick in the oven.

The set arrived yesterday. The pieces have a nice heft. They're so pretty that I'm almost afraid to use them. Even so, part of the morning will be spent making room for them in the cupboard. The old Revereware and various odd pieces will be boxed up for donation.

And...I didn't stop there. I filled out the set with 3 and 5-qt casseroles. I also got a couple pieces from Lodge Cast Iron, a 10.5" skillet and a 12" grill pan. So, with some care and a little luck, I shouldn't have to buy cookware for quite some time.

On the Gaby front, it's been about 7 weeks since the switch to duck. She seems just fine-- ::fingers crossed::--bouncy and happy. I have noticed that she stares at King's food for a few moments after I set their bowls down. It's as if she's trying to figure out why her food looks different, or why King has crunchy food and she doesn't. But then she eats.

Snow's still falling. Pups are napping. I need to put some pots away.

Comments

[galeni.livejournal.com]

Ooo, pan porn. I have an all-clad skillet (deglazes fabulously) and 4 qt saucepan and adore them. Heat much faster than only bottom clad and keep that heat, too. Have a chicken fryer skillet from Wagner cast iron I've had for years and use often, and a ceramic interior nonstick skillet that takes higher heat than Teflon without killing canaries, and a collection of Cruset for stews and sauces. Making cheese/ white sauce is easy in cruset on the stove and it won't burn!!! Burned lots of sauces before that.

Love good tools.

Glad Gabby is doing well. Poor baby.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

One thing people said about the Cuisinart stuff was that they could cook at lower settings because the pans held onto heat so well. The instructions also state that you shouldn't set heat higher than medium or you will burn food. They compared it favorably to All-Clad.

Users note that the pans clean easily as well. Soaking and cleaners like Bon Ami only. No more SOS pads.

I do have one All-Clad piece, a non-stick grill pan. It's OK, but use is limited because of the coating. No putting it in the oven to finish.

I have to decide what to make first...

I am so hoping that Gaby's tum in under control. She's still on pepcid 5mg 2x a day, along with probiotics with meals. Her insides still gurgle at times, which may be normal for her. Only time will tell.

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe Gaby needs some crunchy Peking Duck skin so she'll feel she's getting equal treatment .

--Jaws

[phantomminuet.livejournal.com]

Dontcha just love cooking stuff? I still have the original Revereware pots and pans that I set up housekeeping with, and I love them, but I have since added several Le Crueset cast iron pieces. The colors are beautiful, they're easy to clean, and they're still made in a democracy.

I would also recommend having a set of Pyrex baking dishes and measuring containers, in order to have a well-stocked kitchen. Pyrex is extremely reasonably priced, it's very sturdy, and it's still made in the U.S.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I have the Pyrex rainbow mixing set--blue, red, green, and yellow bowls--that I inherited from Mom. A couple of baking dishes. And a 2-qt glass measuring pitcher with a snap-on lid that's great for mixing batters.

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

You're being an enabler. I have a mix of odd stuff, and would like to improve, but my cooking style's different from yours. I have two iron skillets (one Lodge, one Wagner, both in the range of 55-60 years old), a big square iron griddle (Lodge--I love it but Richard doesn't), a small round iron griddle (he likes it; I don't) and one enameled-cast-iron oval baking dish, rather small (a small chicken can be squeezed into it.) I have the 20 quart soup/stock pot in which I make stock (Chinese made, harder to clean than All-Clad, but cost only $75 and it does have an aluminum core bottom) The saucepans are all Revere; the Dutch ovens (in which I made smaller one-meal soups and chili) are all Revere; the 10 quart soup pot (in which, at the moment, beef-vegetable-barley is getting started) is Revere. The older Revere is 55 or older; the newer Revere (bought to expand the old after I married) is in the 30 yo range. There was already a lowering in quality by then. The Revereware skillet (not my mother's, but a newer one) is pretty much defunct--it warped and isn't flat anymore. I could use a non-stick saute pan, yes, though the old seasoned cast iron does the job.

But the question is, do I really *need* the other stuff, or just *want* it? I'd love to have some All-Clad. I'd love to have prettier Dutch-oven sorts of pots (but enameled cast iron is heavier and my small blue one--oh, and the big lasagna pan--are in fact hard to clean. I make bean soups--bean soups stick. So can barley and rice.

And yet...

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

My Revereware skillet warped as well, which was a major reason why I bought the Calphalon non-sticks--I wanted skillets that rested level on the burners. Things don't cook evenly otherwise unless I balance them just so.

The RW pots are in decent shape, but they have plastic knobs and handles, which means that none of them are going in the oven. Granted, it's usually the skillet cooked stuff that goes in for an oven finish, not stuff made in sauce pans.

Did I *need* this new set. Probably not, although I didn't have a decent steamer, and now I do. I looked at the Lodge pieces, but I didn't want all enameled cast iron. I think they lack some of the temperature flexibility of stainless, and you can have trouble with chipping and separating of the layers in case of overheating/accident.

I wanted to stop burning stuff, although that could simply be my lack of skill...

In part, I wanted a matched set that was *mine*, but that's psychological.

You're being an enabler.

::hums::

[galeni.livejournal.com]

Burning was a result of the pans, not your skill. Or rather, the good pans won't burn nearly as easily and are more tolerant of iffy stove elements. We have a very old Jenn-Aire with old electric burners that aren't even level, but the good pans still grab whatever heat they can get and distribute it fairly well.

It wasn't you; it was the pans. Because me, too.

[galeni.livejournal.com]

My opinion: yes.

You wouldn't expect to draft using a kid's pencil, or work with a quill pen when you can work on a computer, etc.

All-Clad pans clean up easily even when the beans boiled over -- scrubbing with a green scrubber took the last of it off fairly easily. If you are in a kitchen store and touch the inside bottom of an All Clad skillet, and then one of the others, you can feel how well-machined the All-Clad is. And I use a much lower heat with the All-Clad pan than with our Revere-clone (Duncan Hines) from 1980, because the core hold the temperature all the way up the sides.

Cruset doesn't seem, at the moment, significantly better than its Cuisinart etc. clones. Soaking the pots releases everything, and the heating is fantastic -- the stove turns down to almost its lowest setting and it simmers lightly, just as with the All-Clad (although they heat up initially more slowly). And sauces heat evenly and the cheese melts in the white sauce with no nasty brown bits coming off the bottom of the pan.

You cook a lot and well. Deglazing is better in an All-Clad skillet than in my cast iron (that Wagner pan is 30+ years old), so if you're making a sauce with the juices, the All-Clad works better. And it's much lighter. (10" chicken fryer keeps my wrists in shape, but doesn't shake or turn the contents well)

Cuisinox Elite saucepans are a fair clone of All-Clad, but their finishing isn't quite as smooth so I didn't get their skillet. But I have their 2 qt saucepan and it's fabulous for everyday cooking like heating water for Lipton Soup, etc.

Cruset used to make saucepans (I have a set from 1980) but I don't think they do anymore. If you can find them on Craigslist and the insides are still white and not brown (the porcelain seems to get porous if treated poorly), they're a deal. They made a skillet with a fancy black porcelain interior, but I find it grabs whatever I'm cooking and won't let go without a brush to scrub the surface with.

All-Clads might be going for cheaper on Craigslist right now with the economy, for what it's worth. It's not as if they wear out. Or ebay. They do go on sale once in a while. I have just the Classic, not the non-stick or the copper lined (showy) because you need high heat to brown properly and non-stick doesn't like that much. Alton Brown (kitchen maven) said he gets cheap non-sticks since they do wear out, and replaces as needed. Me, I have one of the green versions with a bluish ceramic lining that will take browning, but it doesn't brown beef as well as the All-Clad.

I watched my father (contractor and electrician) buy the tools he needed for work and my mother (homemaker mostly) get by cobbling together what she needed, and decided that to take myself seriously I needed to get the good stuff. I don't know if they make the food taste better, but they do make it much more of a joy to cook with good tools.

But your mileage may vary, of course.

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

You make some good points. The Revere Ware was top of the line (that any of us knew about) back when the hardware store my mother worked in sold it, but...not really, anymore. And having recently had to scrub up Revere pots that beans had, once again, clung to the bottom of (all it takes is steel wool and elbow-grease, but my elbows are running short of grease) the thought of a finish that beans don't stick to...lovely.

And you're correct, deglazing an iron skillet is...definitely not as good as even in Revere Ware.

If I can convince myself I "deserve" it...yeah. OK.

[galeni.livejournal.com]

I should think that Paks would think you deserve it. And anyone who ever had Paks's example before them when they had to make their own hard decisions would agree, too. You've changed lives for the better, ma'am. And likewise with Herris. And That Idiot (the pretty cousin) who taught us that mistakes are merely mistakes and not Everything and don't Destroy all Hope.

My mum had Revereware, and it was better than anything else available at the time in the US for household users. But now, there's better. Revere was pricey then, after all.

Don't you feel that nudge in your back from a certain large steed? I've felt it, sometimes, and it's helped me to do things I didn't really want to do but knew I should to Do the Right Thing.

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

Nudges yes. Human and "other". If I'm going to go all farm/ranch-woman cooking, it's already a lot of work and needs good tools, you're right.

And--as when I ditched some lesser cookware 20-30 years ago--there are people for whom the RevereWare will be a godsend (I donate my excess cookware to women's shelters.)